May 14, 2026 10:57 AM UTC

House GOP Leader Fires Fellow Republican’s Aide for ‘Trying To Intimidate a Representative’

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• by: Erik Maulbetsch

(Drama ’til the gavel fell — Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Originally posted at the Colorado Times Recorder

Colorado House Republicans have yet another internal caucus fight on their hands, and this one appears to include an unprecedented firing, the details of which came to light –- including to some of the people involved -– on a live radio broadcast yesterday morning. State Rep. Brandi Bradley (R-Highland Ranch) says Minority Leader Jarvis Caldwell (R-Monument) fired her legislative aide against Bradley’s wishes, which appears to be a first for the Colorado General Assembly. According to an email from the House Clerk shared on X by Bradley, Caldwell determined that her aide’s text to another legislator necessitated termination as it violated the chamber’s workplace expectation policy.

The first public statement about Navarro’s firing came in the form of a Facebook reel she posted Friday afternoon, featuring AI versions of herself, Bradley, and Caldwell.

Over the weekend, Bradley, who did not respond to an email request for comment, posted an email she received from the chief clerk of the state House of Representatives explaining Navarro’s firing.

“Representative Bradley, as we discussed, this email is to explain that I received an email from the Minority Leader stating that he had received information that your aide, Schumé Navarro, had sent text messages to a legislator that he found had violated the Workplace Expectations Policy. As a result of his determination, Ms. Navarro can no longer be employed as a legislative aide… We will deactivate Ms. Navarro’s security badge. Please return the badge and any key to your office to the front desk.”

As it turns out, the text in question was made on a group chat created by Bradley to chastise her colleague, Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-Fort Morgan), for criticizing Bradley. We know this because Navarro, Bradley, and Caldwell all separately called in to conservative radio host Ryan Schuiling’s 630 KHOW show Monday morning, each sharing more details about the dispute.

At the time, Navarro said she was willing to share the text in question, but did not do so on air. Host Schuiling read a statement sent to him by Caldwell, which characterized Navarro’s text as “vulgar and intimidating,” specifying it sufficiently for Navarro to be able to identify it. Shortly after her radio appearance, Bradley posted the text, along with her own text, both of which criticized Johnson for not being appreciative of their (Bradley and Navarro) efforts to tell yet another GOP legislator, Ron Weinberg (R-Loveland), to stop insulting Johnson with sexually harassing language.

In February, the House Ethics Committee determined that two of the claims in Bradley’s official complaint about Weinberg’s sexist and harassing behavior warranted further investigation. After Weinberg, who announced he wasn’t running for reelection following the allegations, decided against requesting a public hearing, he received a letter of admonishment. Bradley, who wanted his actions discussed on the record, took the unprecedented step of calling for the 600+ page budget bill to be read at length in protest.

After initially just providing a statement via text message, Caldwell eventually also called in to Ryan Schuiling’s show yesterday morning:

“The bottom line is that there are workplace expectations for the legislative aides, and on multiple occasions, Representative Brandi Bradley’s aide has violated those,” said Caldwell. “This is all documented. I brought the evidence to HR. I brought it to the Chief Clerk, who is the authority to hire and fire aides, as well as representatives, but they [the clerk’s office] ultimately are [an authority] as well.” “And I brought and presented those evidence, and it was a universal agreement that this was improper for an aide to be doing — to be reaching out and essentially trying to intimidate a representative because that representative gave a statement to the media that criticized Representative Bradley, and so they agreed, this is a fireable offense, and this isn’t the first time this has happened. And so it was ultimately the chief clerk who terminated her aide. And you know that there are workplace expectations for state-funded employees. You’re not a taxpayer-funded employee that is allowed to go in there and try to intimidate representatives because you’re mad that they criticized your legislator.”

Navarro also worked on social media and communications for Rep. Ken DeGraaf, (R-Colorado Springs). Reached for comment, DeGraaf confirmed that “with the backing of the Speaker and Majority leader, Rep Caldwell terminated our aide. We have yet to find or be provided with any citation granting authority to the minority leader to unilaterally make this determination. The closest defense has essentially been ‘tradition.’ We hold that this action is without authority and violates the policies and procedures of the Colorado House of Representatives, and itself violates the cited ‘Workplace Expectations’ that ‘applies to every member of the General Assembly.’”

DeGraaf continued, “The Executive Committee does not seem to hold the unilateral authority to terminate a legislative aide. The aide is the personal staff of the hiring representative, who retains the direct employment and termination authority (subject only to the limited consultation requirements in the harassment policy and the overall program rules set by the Executive Committee). Any attempt by an individual Executive Committee member to fire another representative’s aide falls completely outside the policies and procedures in the manual.”

Legislative aides have the option of union representation at the Capitol. The Political Workers Guild of Colorado represents a number of current aides, although Navarro was not a member. Reached for Comment PWG Vice Chair Chris Crosby offered the following statement:

“I don’t know the specifics of this case, nor is she a Member of our union, so I can’t be specific about this case,” said Crosby. “I will say though, broadly speaking, that this looks like a textbook example of the dark side of being an “at-will” employment state. At-will employment agreements, which all Legislative Aides have, by definition means there does NOT not have to be transparency, process, or fairness, at any point in one’s employment at the Capitol. And it doesn’t even have to be your ‘boss,’ or the legislator you work for and interact daily with, that terminates you.”

Crosby also confirmed that all aides undergo a background check as part of the hiring process to work at the Capitol.

Caldwell did not respond to an email request for comment as to whether he indeed directed the clerk to fire Navarro and whether he believes he has the authority to do so.

Navarro told Schuiling she isn’t interested in working at the Capitol anymore because she doesn’t believe that it is a safe environment, but that she is exploring all of her legal options to remedy what she believes is a wrongful termination.

Prior to working for Bradley, Navarro served as secretary of the Arapahoe County Republicans and ran for the Cherry Creek School Board. During that time, she routinely promoted the QAnon conspiracy on social media, and snuck a red “Q” into President Trump’s February 2020 campaign rally in Colorado Springs.